A well-spoken solicitor yesterday (Thurs) told how he has been mobbed in the street by England fans – because he is the

Which is which? (Roy on right)

spitting image of new boss ROY HODGSON.

Posh Neil Maybury, 58, bears an uncanny resemblance to the England boss – but could not sound more different.

While Roy is affectionately known as ‘Woy’ because of his difficulty pronouncing his r’s, public-school educated Neil admits fans are taken aback by his gold-plated accent.

Neil, a solicitor in intellectual property rights from Birmingham, has come face-to-face with Roy and is set to make a fotune from appearing as Roy’s official lookalike.

The father-of-four said: “I get stopped at least a couple of times a week but since Roy was made the England manager I get people coming up to me almost every day.

“I’ve been stopped at a cafe in Windermere, pubs in Lincolnshire and even in Majorca.

“It’s a real giggle.

“Even though I look like Roy, I don’t sound like him.

“Some people meet me and really think I am Roy – but then they hear me talk and realise I must be a lookalike.

“I have appeared as a Roy lookalike before but I have been warned that will probably increase now that he is England manager.”

Son Toby first noticed his dad shared the England manager’s distinctive owl-like looks after watching the future England boss interviewed on TV five years ago.

And he came face-to-face with the real Roy after bumping into him after a football match in 2009.

Neil added: “Toby and I were watching the football on TV when he said: ‘Dad, I’ve got to tell you, you bear a striking resemblance to Roy Hodgson’.

“Roy was manager of Fulham at the time and I was an Aston Villa fan and we finally met when they played in August 2009.

“It was extraordinary.

“The Fulham team were on their way out to go back on the coach and there was a seething throng of people.

“The door opened from the changing room and Roy immediately pointed his finger at me and smiled.

“We just chatted about the game, and I said ‘Roy, when you’re in the Midlands, I hope you don’t have the trouble I have when I’m in Fulham.’”

Neil was born in Birmingham and privately educated at #12,000-a-year King Edward’s School before studying law at the University of Birmingham.

He qualified as a solicitor in London with Clifford-Turner before returning to Birmingham as a partner with Pinsent & Co where he remained for 20 years.

Bizarrely, Neil and Roy share the same passions including tennis and opera.

On Neil’s personal website states he is patrol of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, chairman of the Spitfire Museum.

Neil, who is expert in protecting intellectual property, now charges #250 for appearances as Hodgson and another #500 to “say a few words”.
ENDS

A 94-year-old great gran who was battered by a thug as she slept in bed told her daughter: “I was screaming for help but no-one came,” it emerged yesterday (Tue).
The intruder beat frail widow Emma Winnall senseless, broke her arm and wrist and partially cut off her FINGER in the “motiveless” attack.
The cruel yob broke into Emma’s ground-floor flat last Monday night (1/5) but did not steal anything.
Shocked carers raised the alarm on Tuesday morning when they discovered Emma unconscious and covered in blood in bed at her home in Moseley, Birmingham.
The wheelchair-bound pensioner was rushed to hospital where she had emergency surgery and metal plates inserted into her arm.
Yesterday (Tue) Emma’s daughter Joyce Blencoe, 56, made an emotional appeal to catch the culprit.
Police also confirmed they were following up “a number of names” of potential suspects.
Speaking at a press conference at Lloyds House, West Midlands Police HQ in Birmingham, Joyce said: “I’m appealing for your help to find whoever did this.
“To see your own mum viciously beaten and covered in blood is the most horrific nightmare.
“It broke my heart to hear my frail and defenceless mum in hospital say to me ‘I was screaming for help but no-one came.’
“So please, if anyone knows what happened, if they have any suspicions that certain people may be involved or have information, then please come forward before they do it to someone else.”
Her brother John Winnall, 63, was beside Joyce as she made the impassioned plea for help.
Detective Chief Inspector Sab Johal, of West Midlands Police, said the motive for the attack was still “unclear”.
He said: “Emma is not someone who shows wealth.
“There does not appear to be a break in. The motive still remains unclear.
“The levels of violence were shocking.
“This is a 94-year-old person who was in bed. Even if she could offer resistance she was not able to.
“It appears Emma at this stage is unable to fully converse with us. A vulnerable victim of 94 years old, her recollection is not always going to be 100 per cent.
“It is a unique offence. It is very rare.
“The injuries suffered are quite horrific. She remains in hospital at this time and is very poorly. She is stable but critical.
“The injuries she sustained would have been challenging for people half her age.
“We have had a number of names put forward to the investigation team. At this stage we are treating the investigation with open minds.
“Moseley is one of the safest parts of Birmingham. We have a team of 20 detectives working on the investigation.”
Hardened cops were shocked by the motiveless attack.
Days after the attack, her family released a photograph of her in hospital with shocking injuries in the hope it will persuade anyone with information to go to the police.
Emma, who has five children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, has lived alone since her husband Frank died six years ago aged 91.
ENDS

A jealous father who stabbed his ex-partner to death in broad-daylight while he was on police bail for harassing her has been jailed for 23 years.

Evil David Palmer, 40, repeatedly knifed pretty Kerry Smith, 29, after lying in wait for her as she left her local shop.

The blonde mum died of multiple stab wounds shortly after the attack in July last year.

He flipped after she refused to let him see their 19-month-old daughter Samantha after she feared he would kill them both.

Kerry had just left a local shop at 11.40am on Sunday, July 31 when she was stabbed three times by Palmer.

She was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead a short time later.

At the time of the killing, Palmer was on bail for harassing Kerry after a series of brutal attacks on her at her home.

He was also serving a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of beating her with a broom handle.

Chillingly, just days before the murder, Kerry confided in friend Joanne Adams telling her she feared Palmer would kill her.

She told her: “I’m going to die and my daughter is going to grow up without a mum.

“I’ll definitely be dead next time.”

Palmer was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 23 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday.

Sentencing him, Judge John Warner told him: “It is not surprising that she feared that one day you would kill her.

“It was a fear she expressed in those final days of her life.“

Following the case it emerged that before her death Kerry wrote a letter sent to the father of a domestic abuse murder victim expressing her fears that Palmer would kill her.

She became pen pals with Michael Brown, whose daughter, 36-year-old mother Clare Wood, from Salford, Greater Manchester, was strangled and set alight by a man she met on Facebook in 2009.

In the letter Kerry said she feared that one day Palmer would kill her or their daughter Samantha.

And just months before her death Kerry begged police to help her, telling them: “I’m totally and utterly scared that David is going to try and kill me.”

During the four-week trial, the jury was shown shocking CCTV footage of Palmer lying in wait for Kerr as she entered a shop in Blackheath High Street, West Mids., at 11.30am.

Palmer crouched behind a wooden board before launching a frenzied attack on the helpless mum and stabbing her three times.

Palmer, of Rowley Regis, West Mids., admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murder after a jury took just one hour 20 minutes to return a unanimous guilty verdict last week.

The court was told how Kerry lived in a state of “abject terror“ of Palmer, who was described as “a man consumed with jealousy, anger and hatred” who would regularly beat Kerry.

The jury were also told about Palmer’s violent history and how a terrified Kerry had called the police on numerous occasions following his threatening or violent behaviour.

In 2010, Palmer received a suspended prison sentence when he pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm after her attacked her in March that year.

Jurors heard how Palmer had beaten her with a broom handle and then punched her several times, leaving her with a fractured left rib and bruising to her head.

Over the next two years, the jury were told of Palmer’s failure to leave Miss Smith alone – constantly calling at her mother’s home and making violent threats.

The court then heard Miss Smith wrote to a friend on July 27 2011, just three days before her death.

In it she wrote: “I’ve been through a violent relationship. He hit me and when I left him and went to live with my mum, he broke into my mum’s house and broke my ribs.

“His bail conditions are not to come anywhere near my road and not to contact me in any way.

“I’m now that terrified that I sleep with my head up against the bedroom door and Samantha in bed with me.

“I really do think that these bail conditions are not going to stop him as that if he’s found not guilty (of the harassment) he will just keep coming.

“What if he gets into my house as takes mine or my daughters, or both of our lives?”

Alan Kent QC, prosecuting, told the court: “She (Kerry Smith) actually thought that one day he would kill her. That day came on Sunday July 31.”

Speaking after Tuesday’s hearing, Detective Inspector Simon Astle, of West Midlands Police, said: “Palmer will not be eligible for parole until 2035 and remain behind bars after that time if he is still deemed a potential danger to the public.

“David Palmer is a jealous, controlling and violent man.

“Armed with a knife he went to an area where he knew Kerry would be and stabbed her before running off and leaving her bleeding to death on the pavement.

“He intended to kill her and in doing so finally exerted the ultimate control over her.”

The 93-year-old statesman and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has been taken to hospital with what officials describe as a “long-standing abdominal complaint”.

Mr Mandela retired from public life eight years ago but has suffered declining health in recent years.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s office said the “love and good wishes of all South Africans and people throughout the world”

It has not been officially announced which hospital he had been taken to, but it is believed to be in Johannesburg.

Last year, Mandela received treatment in Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital for respiratory problems.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is affectionately known in South Africa as Madiba.

He spent 27 years in prison for his actions against the apartheid regime before being released in 1990.

In 1994, he became South Africa’s first black president, stepping down in 1999 after one term.

A PRISON officer has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a set of master keys as part of a protest against his jail’s controversial privatisation.

Lags at Winson Green prison, Birmingham, were placed on lockdown for almost 24 hours after the keys, including one to open every cell door in the 1,450 capacity prison, went missing last October.

Security firm G4s, which took over the running of the jail in the same month, was forced to replace all the locks at an estimated cost of up to GBP1 million.

Sources at the Victorian jail, the first in the country to be privatised, said a prison officer had stolen the keys to highlight grievances with the new regime.

An insider said: “The keys have never been recovered. The screw was trying to make a point because he wasn’t happy about his contract terms under the new management.”

A West Midlands Police spokesman confirmed: “A man, aged in his 30s, was arrested in December in relation to an investigation into missing keys at Winson Green. He is currently on bail.

The investigation into this incident is ongoing.“ a spokesman for G4s said.

“We can confirm a member of staff is helping police with their enquiries but, as the matter is subject to an ongoing police investigation, we cannot comment further“.

Jerry Petherick, the company’s chief of custodial services, said the majority of staff at the prison were dedicated, highly motivated and professional.

“It is not an isolated thing in the prison service for keys to go missing but, because Birmingham was transferred to G4s, it raised the profile of the incident,“ he said.

“Prison operations continued as normal while a replacement system was put in place and there was never any danger to the general public.“

Details of the arrest emerged after the publication earlier this month of the final annual report from the Independent Monitoring Board for the prison described staff morale as “palpably low“ during the privatisation process.

The report recommended that similar processes should be shortened and “lessons learned from HMP Birmingham’s experience“.

The decision to hand the running of the prison to G4s was condemned as “politically-driven“ and “morally repulsive“ by the Prison Officers’ association when the details emerged last March.

ends…

Prisoners kept behind bars too long due to paperwork blunders

POOR work from bungling officials has cost the Goverment millions of pounds as prisoners are kept in jail too long due to paperwork blunders.

More than 6,000 convicts are kept behind bars past their release date and a new report by the family courts and probation union NAPO claims a lack of resources at the Ministry of Justice and the Parole Board is wreaking havoc on the legal system.

In Birmingham a prisoner was kept in jail four months too long because of  botched paperwork.

And a second convict faced a three-month delay for release because staff lost key documents.

The average annual cost of a prison place is GBP45,000, meaning a four-month delay would cost GBP15,000 per prisoner.

It says “virtually all“ offenders who are recalled to jail after breaching their licence are serving longer than expected behind bars.

The cost of holding these prisoners unnecessarily could reach GBP90 million, and hundreds of other offenders could claim compensation for being held past their expected release date.

Harry Fletcher, Napo’s assistant general secretary, said: “A mix of fewer staff, more prisoners and delay means the Prison Service faces meltdown.

“It appears that thousands of prisoners are being held beyond their release date because of a lack of resources at the Parole Board and Ministry of Justice.

“This is costing the taxpayer millions in unnecessary incarceration.“

EX-ASTON VILLA boss Doug Ellis claims Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung tried to buy him out of his beloved club in a multi-million pound takeover.

But the former chairman turned down the Hong Kong businessman, fearing the deal would land Villa with a mountain of debt.

Yeung ended up buying Blues who won the League Cup under his ownership but were then relegated from the Premiership.

The Far East businessman is now currently on bail after being accused of laundering GBP59 million by authorities in Hong Kong. He denies the allegations and will face trial later this year.

Ellis, 87, revealed details of the extraordinary Yeung bid just hours after it was revealed he had been knighted in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours for his charity work.

Ex Villa boss Doug Ellis refused Carson Yeung's offer to buy the club

He claimed that Yeung’s righthand man Sammy Yu had once spent a day at Villa Park in their quest to buy a Premier League team.

But Ellis rejected the approach because he did not want to see the former European Champions left in debt.

Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung was arrested by Hong Kong police’s financial investigations unit and first appeared in court in June.

He was bailed by the Eastern Court in his home city after being charged with five counts of money laundering.

A trial is expected to take place later this year.

A FAMILY was saved from a devastating Boxing Day blaze after their trusty pooch raised the alarm.

Brave Bessie, the Jack Russell terrier, has been hailed a lifesaver after her barking alerted Christian Heath and his family to a fire that was sweeping through their home near Market Drayton, in Shropshire.

Grandfather Christian said his canine companion saved the day after she began barking “pretty intensively” when the fire broke out in a stable block alongside their house as the family ate an evening meal on Boxing Day.

The fire destroyed the stable block, a garden room and 75 per cent of the roof of the home – as well as leaving a number of bedrooms and bathrooms severely damaged.

“My wife and I were having a meal with our two daughters, their husbands and children on Boxing Day at about 6.30pm,” said Christian.

“Bessie was in the garden and started barking pretty intensively which made my wife get up and look through the window.

“It was only because of her persistent barking that we noticed the flames coming out of the stable block – Bessie warned us ten minutes before it started working its way through the roof.”

Fire crews from Market Drayton, Oswestry and Shrewsbury, took more than 11 hours to bring the fire under control, with help from crews based in Staffordshire and Cheshire.

“It’s quite a big house, with a garden room and loft above it that were both completely destroyed,” added Christian.

“Thankfully, we were all untouched by the fire because of Bessie barking in the garden.

“She’s always in the house, but that night she was wandering around outside and if it hadn’t have been for her barking, I dread to think what would have happened.”

The cause of the fire is unknown and the cost of the damage is now being assessed by loss adjusters.

A FAMILY was saved from a devastating Boxing Day blaze after their trusty dog raised the alarm.

THE green man has been helping Brits cross the road for decades, but one council has been blasted after it decided it was no longer politically correct.

Now, Lincolnshire County Council is rolling out new signs at pelican crossings in Boston, and walkers are being asked to wait for the green figure before they cross.

The authority says the signs are helping to keep the streets as safe as possible, but critics have  asked if it is nothing more than political correctness gone mad.

Alan Bell, senior engineer at the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, said: “We need to do all we can to help keep people safe on the county’s roads. These signs remind people to cross only when the green figure is lit.”

He added that the wording of the signs varies across the county.

While some crossings retain the traditional green man, the crossing at John Adams way in Boston has been resigned, now asking baffled residents to “Cross with the green figure”.

Boston borough councillor Ossy Snell said: “It seems a little bit like it’s seen as sexist. Women might think men are controlling if a green man tells them to cross the road.

“There’s so many of these silly things that people are bringing up, which nobody has ever thought about being offensive to anybody when they were brought in.”

Local residents reacted with confusion at the move. Geoff Bradley, 64, said he could not understand the move.

“This must have cost money to do,” said the retired metal worker. “They must have better things to do than waste our money on needless changes.

“It can’t have offended anyone, it’s a picture of a man, so people called it the green man, it makes no sense at all not to keep calling it that.”

Anne Bristow, who uses the crossing every day, was perplexed by the decision. “I didn’t see a problem with it,” said the 30-year-old bank worker. “I cross the street with the same people here every day and no one else had a problem with it, I can’t imagine why anyone would have a problem with it.

“You hear people talking about political correctness going mad and that has always seemed like an overstatement before but this really seems like it has.”

ends…

THE DUCHESS of Cambridge committed a rare fashion faux pas when she turned up to watch Prince William play football in the same pair of GBP300 wellies as his brother Harry.

Although not known for their common interest in clothing, it seems Kate and Harry share a liking for the luxury leather-lined wellington boots – which were made by 80-year-old bootmaker Le Chameau.

The royal pair were spotted wearing the matching green footwear on Christmas Eve as they watched William playing in an 11-a-side football match alongside villagers and workers at Tory peer Lord Greville Howard’s Caste Rising estate.

A cheery looking Prince Harry looked unconcerned by the matching wellies and was seen laughing with the Duchess as they stood on the edge of the pitch on the estate, which is not far from Sandringham.

Despite the faux pas, fashionable Kate managed to look stylish from the sidelines in a GBP1,500 outfit – wearing a GBP695 toscana sheepskin jacket from one of her favourite retailers, L.K. Bennett.

She also kept warm in a GBP355 almond-coloured wool jumper from Alice TemperleyÕs Notting Hill label, Temperley, London. Miss Temperley is a popular designer with the Middletons and created the emerald dress which Pippa Middleton wore to her sisterÕs wedding reception in April.

To complete her casual look, Kate hid her long, wavy hair beneath a cowboy-style hat and showed off her figure in a pair of skinny jeans.

Kate and Harry’s good mood was mirrored by William – whose team, which wore Castle Rising FC shirts, went on to win the game 4-2.

The 29-year-old Prince, who was wearing England shorts and Aston Villa socks, nearly got on the score sheet himself in the 30th minute but his shot was saved.

An onlooker said William “did not shy away from any tackles”, adding: “There were plenty of quite handy players on the pitch and he gave a good account of himself.

“You could see that he knew what he was doing.

“He was chasing the ball all over the place and clearly enjoying himself. Most of the time he was grinning away.”

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace was revealed as the nationÕs favourite TV moment of 2011 in a poll released by digital TV service Freeview.

But there was to be no repeat as Kate was pictured with her back to the camera deep in conversation with William, Harry and a fellow player after the match.

And the Duchess’ casual clothing was a long way from her Christmas Day attire the following day when she wore a long, plum-coloured coat, matching hat and GBP1,900 earrings for a church service in Sandringham.

Prince William, (left) with Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, at Castle Rising near Sandringham, Norfolk